Recycling opportunities at Community Health Fair

[March 22, 2014]  The Logan County Community Health Fair continues its tradition of promoting and educating area residents on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle through screenings, information and programs offered by health and social service organizations at the local, state and regional level. As in the past, this year's Community Health Fair will also offer several recycling opportunities for the public. The health fair will be next Saturday, March 29.

The State Bank of Lincoln will sponsor confidential on-site shredding of papers and destruction of hard drives as part of the Community Health Fair. The shredding and hard drive destruction program offers residents the opportunity to have items such as financial records, old tax returns and other sensitive household records shredded and destroyed in a secure and confidential manner. Proper disposal of these sensitive items may prevent individuals from becoming victims of identity theft. The paper shredding and hard drive destruction program will be available from 9 a.m. to noon in the front parking lot of Lincoln Community High School.

There will also be a glass recycling collection in the front parking lot at LCHS during the same time. The glass collection program accepts only container glass, meaning glass that originally contained either a food or beverage product. Participants will need to remove all plastic and metal caps and rings from the containers. All colors of glass are accepted and do not have to be sorted. The glass recycling program does not accept ceramics, dishware, light bulbs, window glass or mirrors. Glass recycling will be canceled in event of inclement weather.

Inside the Lincoln Park District's SportsCenter, expired or unwanted medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, will be collected. This collection is co-sponsored by the Healthy Communities Partnership and Stacy's Family Pharmacy. Medications must be in the original container with label, and the name should be blacked out to ensure privacy. The Lincoln Police Department will be on-site to oversee the collection process. Residents are reminded that it is no longer acceptable to dispose of any medication by flushing it down the toilet, as chemical compounds are now being detected in groundwater samples.

Eyeglasses and hearing aids will be collected for distribution to visually and hearing-impaired individuals in the U.S. and around the world. New, used, damaged or broken eyeglasses and hearing aids will be accepted.

Cellphones, both working and non-working, will be collected for donation to Sojourn Woman's Center. Cellphones will be reprogrammed and provided to victims of domestic violence for use in emergency situations.

Laser and ink-jet printer cartridges will be collected by Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois. Proceeds from recycling the printer cartridges will be used to supplement ongoing programs for low-income individuals, households, children and seniors.

Tabs from aluminum cans will be collected for donation to the area's Ronald McDonald House.

Containers will be provided on-site at the health fair for the collection of plastic grocery bags.

As always, this year's Community Health Fair offers something for everyone, whether your goal is to maintain or improve your health or to complete some spring cleaning and dispose of items in an environmentally friendly way.

For additional information on health screenings, contact Mallory Ramos Sinner of the Logan County Department of Public Health at 735-2317. With recycling questions, contact Mitzi Rohlfs, Logan County Joint Solid Waste Agency coordinator, at 732-9636.

[Text from file received from the Logan County Joint Solid Waste Agency]